Tag: Brit Marling

Screening Room: ‘The Keeping Room’

On By chrisbarsantiIn Film - NewLeave a comment
'The Keeping Room' (Drafthouse Films)
General Sherman is coming, with fire and musket: ‘The Keeping Room’ (Drafthouse Films)

In the neo-feminist Western The Keeping Room, three women must defend themselves against marauding soldiers at the end of the Civil War.

The Keeping Room is opening this week in limited release. My review is at Film Journal International:

Somewhere in the American South in the last year of the Civil War, a black woman, presumably a slave, hauling wood down an empty country road meets a fierce-looking dog. When it begins to growl and bark, she barks right back. Then she notices the carriage stopped in the middle of the road. A half-dressed woman runs from the carriage, only to be shot in the back by the Union soldier in the carriage who appears to have just raped her. Then the first woman is herself shot in the head by another soldier who appears behind her. It’s a vicious and primal scene, a warning for what awaits the trio of women who are next in the soldiers’ path…

Here’s the trailer:

New in Theaters: ‘The Better Angels’

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Braydon Denney as young Abe Lincoln in 'The Better Angels' (Amplify)
Braydon Denney as young Abe Lincoln in ‘The Better Angels’ (Amplify)

Everybody knows that Abraham Lincoln was raised in a log cabin in Indiana. But it’s still jarring to consider how a man raised in the middle of nowhere with little schooling by probably illiterate parents became one of the nation’s greatest and most erudite leaders. A.J. Edwards’ beautifully abstract, Terence Malick-ian film about Lincoln’s childhood explores that mystery with only limited success.

The Better Angels opened yesterday in limited release. My review is at Film Journal International:

Abraham Lincoln is remembered as one of the nation’s most facile writers and speakers. Yet in this dreamy black-and-white tone poem about Lincoln’s childhood in a dirt-floor cabin in the Indiana woods, the future president says barely a word. It’s an intriguing gambit from debut director A.J. Edwards, the mirror opposite of the standard Spielbergian biopic, and ultimately not a successful one…

Here’s the trailer:

New in Theaters: ‘I Origins’

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Michael Pitt and Astrid Berges-Frisbey in 'I Origins' (Fox Searchlight)
Michael Pitt and Astrid Berges-Frisbey in ‘I Origins’ (Fox Searchlight)

I Origins-posterA few years back, Mike Cahill made one of the more ghostly sci-fi movies of recent years with Another Earth. Now he’s back with that film’s enigmatic Brit Marling and Boardwalk Empire‘s Michael Pitt for a globe-spanning story about, well, eyes.

I Origins opens this Friday in limited release. My review is at Film Journal International:

A haunted-looking Michael Pitt is the main attraction in Mike Cahill’s curious fandango of a science-fantasy story about fate, destiny, genetics and love, and that’s unfortunate. Pitt can usually excel when playing dreamers or tortured types befitting his sensuously languorous mien. But for I Origins, Pitt has to put on a sweater, adjust his glasses, and play a molecular biologist. For the many scenes that call for a sense of true obsession, he can’t quite summon the proper focus, deploying a Johnny Depp-like dourness. Without that, an already disjointed film drifts further apart…

You can see the trailer here:

Now Playing: ‘The East’

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Brit Marling and Alexander Skarsgard in 'The East'
Brit Marling and Alexander Skarsgard in ‘The East’

theeast-posterIn the new eco-spy-thriller The East, a private investigator is sent to infiltrate an anarchist cell. It’s a smart piece of work with impressive performances all around (Alexander Skarsgard, Patricia Clarkson in particular), but a slightly disappointing effort from director Zal Batmanglij, who wowed with last year’s astounding debut Sound of My Voice.

The East opened last Friday in limited release and will be expanding around the country over the summer.

My review is at Film Racket; here’s part of it:

Batmanglij’s co-writer Brit Marling plays Jane, a former FBI agent hired by a private intelligence firm as an investigator. Her first assignment is to infiltrate The East, an underground environmental activist cell that’s been targeting corporate executives they accuse of spreading pollution and disease. Jane dyes her hair blonde, gets tossed a pair of Birkenstocks by her new boss Sharon (an even flintier than usual Patricia Clarkson), and heads out to gather intelligence on The East for the firm’s corporate clients. A few nights of eating out of dumpsters and hopping freight trains later, she’s face to face with The East. They turn out to be little like the expected ranting radicals…

You can watch the trailer here:

DVD Tuesday: ‘Sound of My Voice’

On By chrisbarsantiIn DVD - FilmLeave a comment

One of the greater film surprises of 2012 was the blink-and-you-missed-it Sound of My Voice, which came out on DVD last week. My review is at AMC Movie Database:

Zal Batmanglij’s canny and suspenseful head-knotter Sound of My Voice initially seems of a piece with films like Martha Marcy May Marlene, United Red Army, and the new festival film First Winter. It, too, revolves around a small gang of earnest believers following a leader whose motives are suspect at best. Where Batmanglij’s film stands apart is in its unalloyed skill and confidence — this is one of the most assured feature debuts in recent memory — and in his ability to turn this exploration of cult indoctrination into both a profound character study and a nail-biting thriller. But for a conclusion that arrives long before the audience is ready for it to be over with, this would have been the runaway indie hit of the year…

You can see the trailer here: